Review: Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

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Cover image of "Make Me an Instrument of your Peace" by Mark DeYmaz

Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace, Mark DeYmaz. NavPress (ISBN: 9798898020170) 2026.

Summary: A reflection on the Prayer of St Francis and how we might be transformed into instruments of peace.

Often in our efforts to communicate the good news of Christ, we focus more on the content of the message than the character of the messenger. Both matter, but in our time of conflict and scandals even in the churches, character matters more than ever. In this book, Mark DeYmaz walks through the Prayer of St. Francis, also known as the Peace Prayer for its opening line: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.” DeYmaz believes that as we pray into and live into this prayer, we may represent Jesus increasingly well in our chaotic world.

He begins by offering a bit of history of the prayer, whose true author is unknown, although it is attributed to St. Francis. It first appeared in La Clochette, a small magazine, in 1912. He offers a threefold structure for understanding the prayer:

Section 1: What. The petitioner understands that instruments of peace provide antidotes to help alleviate internal and external human conflict.

Section 2: How. The petitioner recognizes that instruments of peace surrender self-centered interests and desires to serve the greater good.

Section 3: Why. The petitioner believes that the instruments of peace find fulfillment paradoxically through selflessness and sacrifice. (p. 15)

DeYmaz then walks through the prayer section by section, phrase by phrase, exploring how Christ works transformation in and through us.

First of all, DeYmaz links the opening petition of the Peace Prayer to Isaiah 61 as echoed in Luke 4. Specifically, Jesus speaks of the anointing of the Spirit upon him to preach good news as the one who comes as a Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6). As we pray this petition and identify with the Anointed One, we share in his anointing.

Then, in the second part, we surrender self-interest for transcending goods. We break cycles of hate, including conspiracies and “enemy groups,” through unconditional love. Then we recognize where we’ve been hurt and wronged and “put pardon.” Doubt and fear pervade our landscape. Hence, faith that leans in and perseveres in walking toward what God promises offers hope to others. But many lack hope and despair. Lacking the vision of a destination, people despair and become cynical. But if we “wait in hope” with and for others, we encourage them that hope in Christ is possible. As we abide in Christ, we become lights by which others see in the darkness. Lastly, when we choose joy amid sadness, we spread that joy to others.

Finally, we pray into a life that finds fulfillment through selflessness and sacrifice. Having experienced the Spirit’s consolation, we walk along others in pain, remembering our consolation. We recognize that understanding between people comes not by trying to make others understand us. Instead, it comes through genuinely listening, asking good questions and assuming the best of others. Since Christ loves us unconditionally, we extend grace and unconditional love to others. We trust that God will overmatch our own generosity. Like Pope John Paul, who forgave his assassin, we pardon as those who could not have a relationship with God without his pardon. Lastly, we pray to live into the truth that only by dying to self can we save our lives.

Each chapter concludes with a few questions for reflection. Throughout the text, DeYmaz offers illustrations of the truth in each petition. And he shows how each of the petitions are grounded in scripture. The Prayer of St. Francis is one many have committed to memory to pray daily. C.S. Lewis, in writing on prayer suggested that we see prayers like the “Our Father” as structure on which we “festoon” our prayers. Mark DeYmaz offers substance by which we might do the same with The Peace Prayer. By so doing, identified with the Prince of Peace, we engage in a practice that day by day, forms Christ’s character in us. And that is good news not only for us but for our world.

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Reading Evangelicals

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Cover image of "Reading Evangelicals" by Daniel Silliman

Reading Evangelicals

Reading Evangelicals, Daniel Silliman. Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (ISBN: 9780802886477) 2025.

Summary: A study of how the Christian fiction evangelicals read in recent decades shaped the evangelical imagination.

My wife was the former librarian at our church. That is, until people stopped taking books out and used the library as a place to dispose of books they’d read. Consequently, we decided to repurpose the space and get rid of most of the books. A large portion of those books were in the Christian fiction genre. Four of the authors discussed in this book were heavily represented–Frank Peretti, Janette Oke, Beverly Lewis, and Tim LaHaye.

This was not the Christian fiction that had formed my life. For that, I had C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Charles Williams, Dorothy L. Sayers, Flannery O’Connor, Marilynne Robinson, Alan Paton, and Frederick Buechner to thank. I realized that I had been formed in a very different outlook (and perhaps literary aesthetic) than the vast majority of my fellow believers. While we had our love for Christ in common, our perception of the world and what was important was just different.

What I could not easily put into words, Daniel Silliman articulates in this cultural analysis of the books evangelicals were reading from the late 1980’s into the late 2000’s. The book begins and ends with the closing of evangelical Christian bookstores like Lifeway and Family Christian by 2015. During the space in which the authors considered here wrote their debut works, these stores functioned as an expression of evangelical identity. Hence, one of the interesting questions he touches on is what will happen to that identity, which he sees as increasingly fragmented.

But the heart of this book is his analysis of five pioneer Christian fiction authors (six if you include co-author Jerry Jenkins) who contributed to the boom of this genre. The authors are Janette Oke, Frank Peretti, Beverly Lewis, Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins, and William Paul Young. Respectively, they pioneered Christian romance, horror, Amish romance, apocalyptic, and emergent Christian fiction.

What is striking is that each wrote books Christian publishing houses weren’t publishing that someone took a chance with resulting in huge sales. Silliman sketches the background of each author, the genesis of their debut work and how it ended up being published, and the market response. Then he reviews the storyline and prevailing ideas behind each book.

Oke’s books set romance within the context of the love of God and the life of faith. Similarly, Lewis’s books focuses on the choices of individuals, in light of their Amish identity. Peretti portrayed cultural conflict as a reflection of spiritual warfare. Then, Tim LaHaye set this conflict in apocalyptic terms to compel belief against conspiratorial world powers. Finally, William Paul Young’s The Shack is an early example of a deconstructed and reconstructed faith expressed through an encounter with a very unusual Triune God.

Silliman stops short of attributing the rise of support for our current president to this literature. However, he thinks both the individualism and the culture conflict motifs of these books cultivated an imagination that resonated with some of the things he said. He writes,

“The imagination was too small, I think. Too narrow. From my perspective, American evangelicals ended up too focused on their own private domains, too fearful of strangers, too fearful of change, too invested in the arrogance of always knowing the right answer. Imagining the chaos of modern life, the confusion, the hardship, and day-to-day struggle, the best-selling fiction gave the wrong answers. But I want more and more varied imagination, not less, so I will mourn the vanishing book market anyway.” (p. 220).

But with the demise of this vanishing book market, what will capture the Christian imagination? Will it be reduced to some form of political activism? Or will there be Christian writers of the caliber of a C.S. Lewis who will capture that imagination? The hunger is there. For example, consider the phenomenal current success of Allen Levi’s Theo of Golden.

What Silliman does show is the power of good stories to shape the imagination. But the question is, who are the new storytellers and can they tell a better and deeper story?

_____________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

The Weekly Wrap: June 28-July 4

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The Weekly Wrap: June 28-July 4

America at 250

One of conversations those of my age have is comparing our celebration of America at 250 with the celebrations of the Bicentennial in 1976. For many, this doesn’t hold a candle. In 1976, we had emerged from a war. But in 2026, we are in the middle of a conflict. In 1976, we had the tall ships. This year, we have controversy about the reflecting pool. In fact, 1976 seemed a time of comparative unity, without the partisan controversies of today.

My sense is that many people don’t feel much like celebrating, except for the advances of U.S. Soccer in the World Cup and local fireworks displays. (And maybe we can add Travis’ and Taylor’s wedding!).

But there is much to love and celebrate about this country, apart from our troubled politics. Consider the varied beauty of our geography. While no government is perfect, our constitution with its balancing of powers, and its Bill of Rights stands as a singular document. We have hardly lived up to our aspiration to “liberty and justice for all.” Our commitment to the rule of law has protected us from tyranny. Moreover it has led to the eventual righting of many wrongs.

We are the inheritors of a tremendous heritage ranging from practices of governance to our history at its best and worst, and the cultural riches of American literature, art, music, and dance. Frederick Douglass, Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Beecher Stowe, or Georgia O’Keefe; George Gershwin, New Orleans jazz, Paul Simon, and Martha Graham and Leonard Bernstein. Wherever we turn, we stumble on a rich cultural heritage.

Cultural criticism is easy. However, culture-keeping and culture-creation, as Makoto Fujimura and Andy Crouch have discussed, begins with building on what is good and preserving and enhancing it. So, this edition of The Weekly Wrap focuses on articles that consider our national story, identity, and vision for the future. Happy Independence Day!

Five Articles Worth Reading

I have been reading Jill Lepore’s We the People on the history of our Constitution, and particular its amendments. Therefore, I was interested to come across this interview, “Jill Lepore on What to Read This Fourth of July” in which she not only offers reading suggestions share some of her own opinions about the future of the Constitution. While I don’t agree with some of what she has to say, she points up some critical challenges we face.

But what is proper patriotism, that doesn’t stray in nationalism. Martha Nusbaum, in “Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism” addresses this question. Her address was part of a forum that includes over twenty responses from a variety of luminaries.

Then JSTOR offers a wide array of readings in “Celebrating the Fourth of July” including several historical documents!

Mere Orthodoxy offers an “America250 Forum in two installments that includes several authors whose work I’ve reviewed. The installments are “America250 Forum, Day 1: The Idea of America” and “America250 Forum Day 2: The Weight of History.”

Finally, the first pope born in the United States offers his perspective on our 250th in “Toward a more perfect union.”

Quote of the Week

Franz Kafka, who was born on July 3, 1883, offers this wisdom. I wonder if it applies to nations as well as individuals:

“Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.”

Miscellaneous Musings

For a time, I lived just up the street from the gifted guitarist Phil Keaggy. When he was working on his first solo album, I remember listening to tracks from it that he had recorded on his reel-to-reel tape deck. And when “What a Day” came out, I played it over and over again. John B. Hatch has just written a book, Oh What A Day studying the artistry of that album, and offered me a copy, not knowing my own connection. What a surprise and delight for both of us!

So, I mentioned reading Jill Lepore. We the People is not for the faint of heart. It’s a 600 page history of the Constitution and its amendments. For her, the Constitution is too difficult to amend (two percent of the people can actually kill an amendment).

Lastly, I find reading the Bible with others always opens my eyes. That was especially true as I read Reading the Bible on Turtle Island. Two North American indigenous writer discuss the insights they gain from scripture read through their own cultural lenses. I’ll be reviewing it next week.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Daniel Silliman, Reading Evangelicals

Tuesday: Mark Deymaz, Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace

Wednesday: Iris Murdoch, The Red and The Green

Thursday: T. Christopher Hoklotubbe and H. Daniel Zecharias, Reading the Bible on Turtle Island

Friday: Collin Hansen, Skyler R. Flowers, and Ivan Mesa, editors, The Gospel After Christendom

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap  for June 28-July 4.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Review: Feasting on Hope

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Cover image of "Feasting on Hope" by Hannah Miller King

Feasting on Hope

Feasting on Hope, Hannah Miller King, foreword by Esau McCaulley. InterVarsity Press | Formatio (ISBN: 9781514011140) 2026.

Summary: Through her own story of loss, shows how Communion sets our grief within the larger reality of Christian hope.

I have been taking Communion all my life, since I was accepted into church membership, but usually only a few times a year because of the churches of which I was a part. Reading this book made me envious of those who celebrate the feast weekly or more often. In this book, Hannah Miller King portrays how the Table is a feast in the wilderness that often characterizes our lives.

However, this is not a book of lovely reflections on Communion. It is a book born out of King’s own story of losing her father in childhood and both the grief and the struggle that followed. She writes:

“Belonging to God’s family doesn’t replace our family of origin. It doesn’t erase traumatic memories or the ache of personal losses. But it does write them into a larger story of hope. Communion with Christ reorients us to face our various griefs from a place of safety. In him we find a home” (p. 7).

In a series of ten reflections, she re-traces her own healing process and its relationship to different facets of the multi-faceted wonder of the Table. For her, this was a journey that eventually led her into the Anglican priesthood, from only partaking to inviting others to partake. Beginning with hope, she explores how those living in the shadow of loss and the face of death find life in offering ourselves thankfully to the one who gave his body for us. Not only that, we are born longing to be seen. At the table, God reminds us that he sees us in Christ and embraces us. In all our bodily brokenness, we are met in the one whose body was broken, who is in solidarity with us.

But communion not only entails serious truths. It also is a gift of joy to celebrate. When we want to draw back, in George Herbert’s words, “Love bids me welcome.” However communion isn’t just me and Jesus. We celebrate communion in community. We both discover in it that we are part of a larger family, but also a family that sometimes pains us. Then we eat in the anticipation of the day that Jesus will heal all our wounds and fractures.

King experienced scarcity following her father’s death. But communion challenges our scarcity mindset as the place where one died to multiply his life in many. The Table is a place of hospitality in which Christ welcomes us by becoming the meal. Then the meal invites us to believe that in giving, Christ will nourish us. But giving also calls us into courageous belief. If I give, will I lose out?

Finally, communion speaks to our longing for our unseen home, even as King had longed for the home she lost. These words were themselves a glimpse of that longed-for home:

“In Celtic spirituality, there’s an ancient recognition of ‘thin places,’ where the veil between heaven and earth is especially translucent. Thin places are believed to create a particularly hospitable environment for sensing God’s presence. The Lord’s Table is such a place. We find it in grand sanctuaries with stained glass windows and in borrowed school cafeterias where new congregations gather. We find it in beautiful mountain towns and in war-torn countries; in national cathedrals and in illegal underground churches. In every place that God’s people gather to commune with him, heaven touches earth and we experience, in part, the fellowship that characterizes our forever home” (p. 137).

There are none of the theological debates that characterize so many books on communion. Instead, King ushers us into the wonder of our blessed hope, as Christ welcomes us to feast on him. And through weaving in her own journey through grief and loss, she helps us see how the table may nurture hope in us. All this helps me understand why so many who partake weekly or even more often are never ho-hum about coming to the table. And reading this piqued my own hunger and thirst.

_____________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher for review.

Review: Desolation Mountain

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Cover image of "Desolation Mountain" by William Kent Krueger

Desolation Mountain

Desolation Mountain (Cork O’Connor, 17) William Kent Krueger. Atria Paperback (ISBN: 9781501147470) 2019.

Summary: When a U.S. senator’s plane crashes, Cork seeks the truth behind the crash and Stephen, a recurring dream.

Stephen kept having the same dream. He’s watching a boy who is and is not him. An eagle appears out of the clouds. The boy draws a bow, looses an arrow and brings down the bird. As the bird falls, an egg drops from it. Then the boy is looking at him. Or rather behind him at what he senses is an enormous, terrifying beast. He awakens as they scream together.

Stephen talks to Henry, the old mide to make sense of the dream. So far, they cannot. But Stephen somehow realizes he fears for Henry.

Then the plane crash occurs near Desolation Mountain. A U.S. Senator and her family, coming to discuss a mining project with the townspeople, die in the crash. Cork, part of a volunteer Search and Rescue team are first on the scene. Stephen joins him. Was the plane the eagle? Stephen is deeply troubled. If he’d understood, could it have been prevented?

All sorts of Federal investigators, including the FBI, show up. The site is cordoned off, and Stephen, studying the scene from the mountain is briefly held by some kind of authority figure. However, he momentarily sees another young man. Locals, including Sheriff Marsha Dross, are pulled off the case. Officially, the cause is given out as “pilot error.” They say there was no flight recorder.

But in that case, what are people looking for at the crash site? Is it the “egg” in Stephen’s dream? Then some tribal members, who were first on the crash site disappear. So Cork starts investigating. He discovers a man he’d worked with before is also in town. Bo Thorson is a former Secret Service Agent. At one point he took a bullet to save the life of the wife of the Vice president. Based on his past experience, Cork is willing to trust him and share info. Stephen and Henry intuit something different. And Thorson does save Cork at one point when Cork is set up for a “hit.” He gave Cork a bullet proof vest that saved his life. But Stephen and Henry are right. Bo is dividing his loyalties, and Cork and his family are “expendables.”

Cork recognizes his family is in danger. He and Stephen and his son-in-law Daniel were also early on the scene. So they shelter with Henry. But they make a mistake. Bo also knows where they are.

The young man in the dream is important. He is a photographer and captured a damning piece of evidence on film, that points to the people and motivations behind the crash. But will Cork close in on the truth before those who endanger him and his family close in on them?

Finally, Stephen does finally summons the courage to look at the beast at his back. But I’ll leave that for the reader to discover.

Bo Thorson is a complicated figure. I think he really wants to return Cork’s trust and sees something in the life of Cork’s family he has missed. Also, Waboo, Jenny’s adopted son also seems to have some special gift. He also sees monsters in the woods. Meanwhile, Stephen, having to fight impulses, is slowly growing into his own calling. What I do wonder is how Krueger will develop Cork further. As time goes on, he is identifying more deeply with his tribal ancestry. What is clear is that Krueger is a master at developing the sense of dark foreboding we encounter in Stephen’s dream and both Henry and Waboo’s sense of evil in the woods. It keeps one turning the pages!

The Month in Reviews: June 2026

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Cover image of "What Grows in Weary Lands" by Tish Harrison Warren

The Month in Reviews: June 2026

Introduction

We are in the midst of a heat wave with high humidity and temperatures in the mid-90’s. But the books of this past month have been like a cold glass of iced tea! Tish Harrison Warren’s newest (pictured above) was truly refreshment for the soul. I loved the writing, voice, and story of I Cheerfully Refuse by Leif Enger, an author I stumbled upon serendipitously. Nothing Can Separate Us gave me another dose of the rich writing of Howard Thurman. Good theology always refreshes me and so Robert Letham’s in-depth study, The Eternal Son, abounded in insights on the wonder of the second person of the Trinity. Amy Peeler’s Ordinary Time was indeed timely. Then Agatha Christie and Terry Pratchett both make for some great light reads. There are twenty-one review here in all. So, I hope you might find something that is your cold glass of tea!

The Reviews

From the Outrageous to the Scandalous, Robert H. Woods Jr. and Mark Allan Steiner, eds. Integratio Press (ISBN: 9781959685333) 2025. A collection of essays reflecting on Christian scholarship 30 years after Marsden and Noll’s books. Review

The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop., Robert Coover. New York Review of Books (ISBN: 9798896230182) 2026 (first published in 1968). An accountant creates a fantasy baseball league that takes over his life. Review

Nicaea for Today, Coleman M. Ford and Shawn J. Wilhite. B & H Academic (ISBN: 9781430091547) 2025. The history, meaning, and contemporary significance of the Nicene Creed and how it may be used in churches today. Review

Mrs. McGinty’s Dead (Hercule Poirot, 29), Agatha Christie. William Morrow Paperbacks (ISBN: 9780063376915) 2025, first published in 1952. Superintendent Spence doesn’t think the man he helped convict in Mrs. McGinty’s murder is guilty and asks Poirot’s help. Review

What Grows in Weary Lands, Tish Harrison Warren. Convergent Books (ISBN: 9780593728840) 2026. Lessons for the weary from the desert fathers and mothers on practices that cultivate resilience and renewal. Review

Love in a Time of Climate Change (Revised edition), Sharon Delgado. Fortress Press (ISBN: 9798889837206) 2026, first edition 2017. Uses the Wesleyan Quadrilateral to discern a faithful Christian response to the realities of climate change. Review

Hard Feelings, Daniel Smith. Simon & Schuster (ISBN: 9781982103903) 2026. We are inclined to suppress negative emotions but if we listen to what they are saying about ourselves, we gain wisdom. Review

Did Jesus Really Say He Was God?, Mikel Del Rosario. IVP Academic (ISBN: 9781514011010) 2025. Using methods of historiography, demonstrates that Jesus opponents believed him to be claiming divinity. Review

Nothing Can Separate Us (Plough Spiritual Guides), Howard Thurman, edited by Myles Werntz, Introduction by Vincent W. Lloyd. Plough Publishing (ISBN: 9781636081731) 2026. The inner work of transformation through which God works to bring reconciliation, justice, and hope. Review

The Eternal Son, Robert Letham, foreword by Ian Hamilton. P & R Publishing (ISBN: 9781629958637) 2025. A Christology focused on Christ’s Person, his eternal sonship, and Incarnation, as clarified in councils and more recently. Review

Early Autumn, Louis Bromfield. Open Road Media (ISBN: 9781504073394) 2022, first published in 1926. Olivia Pentland, in a loveless marriage in a rich old family, faces choices as the early autumn approaches when she turns 40. Review

Story Work, GG Renee Hill. Broadleaf Books (ISBN: 9798889832652) 2025. How telling and reframing our stories in writing not only leads to self-discovery, but also to finding our voice and calling. Review

I Cheerfully Refuse, Leif Enger. Grove Press (ISBN: 9780802165190) 2025. In a dystopian America, Rainy and Lark carve out a joyful life until tragedy sends Rainy on a Lake Superior odyssey. Review

When God Seems Distant, Kyle Strobel and John Coe. Baker Books (ISBN: 9781540905321) 2026. How God’s path of growth takes us into the desert, the way it exposes our self-will, and how we abide in God’s love. Review

Heaven and Hell, Edward Donnelly. Banner of Truth. (ISBN: 9781800405325) 2025, first published 2002. A discussion of the traditional doctrines of hell and heaven that we might flee hell and embrace the hope of heaven. Review

Race, Class, and Affirmative Action, Julie J. Park, foreword by Liliana M. Garces. Harvard Education Press (ISBN: 9798895570456) 2026. The effects of SFFA v. Harvard on efforts to advance diversity in college admissions and what may be done. Review

Ordinary Time (Fullness of Time Series), Amy Peeler. InterVarsity Press | Formatio (ISBN: 9781514009680) 2026. The significance of Ordinary Time within the church calendar and how it has been practiced and what it can mean for us. Review

Remember the Sweetness, Polly Giantonio. Rootstock Publishing (ISBN: 9781578693993) 2026. A debut poetry collection capturing memories of beauty, loss, love, and family, both ordinary and profound. Review

Pyramids (Discworld, 7) Terry Pratchett. HarperCollins (ISBN: 9780063393332) 2025, first published 1989. Prince Teppic, having completed Assassins training, returns to be Pharoah of Djelibeybi, ordering the building of a huge pyramid. Review

Woven Tales of Greek Mythology (no publisher link available), Michael D. Clark. Covenant Books (ISBN: 9798894854540) 2025. A rendering of Greek mythology from creation to the odyssey with parallels to Judeo-Christian texts. Review

Power and the Pulpit (The Center for Pastor Theologians Series) edited by Gerald Hiestand and Joel Lawrence. Cascade Books (ISBN: 9798385247554) 2025. A theology of preaching grounded in God’s word and Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered preaching with humility. Review

Best Book of the Month

Tish Harrison Warren’s What Grow’s in Weary Lands addresses what it means to make it through the weary “middles” of life–those periods when the walk of faith is more a slog, and God seems distant. Along the way, she acquaints us with the wisdom of the Desert Fathers and Mothers through her rich prose. Hands down, the best of the month.

Quote of the Month

It is really a simple comment at the beginning of Amy Peeler’s Ordinary Time:

“Jesus’ life would have included many ordinary days, days in which he was simply walking from one place to another.”

I had not thought before how much of Jesus’ life was lived in the ordinary, nor how much encouragement I can gain from that.

What I’m Reading

So, I finally landed on my America 250 reading: Jill Lepore’s We The People, which explores the history of amendments to our constitution and why we haven’t had any in over fifty years. The Red and the Green by Iris Murdoch explores the loves and passions of a connected group of people caught up in the Irish uprisings of in 1915. Then, Make Me an Instrument of Your Peace is a wonderful reflection, phrase by phrase of the prayer attributed to St. Francis. Reading the Bible on Turtle Island is written by two indigenous North Americans, exploring what their own cultural heritage brings to the reading of the Bible. Finally, The Gospel After Christendom is an essay collection I’m just starting on cultural apologetics.

For my readers from the United States, Happy Independence Day as our country celebrates its 250th birthday.

The Month in Reviews is my monthly review summary going back to 2014! It’s a great way to browse what I’ve reviewed. The search box on this blog also works well if you are looking for a review of a particular book. So, thanks for stopping by and feel free to share this with others!

Review: Power and the Pulpit

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Cover image of "Power and the Pulpit" edited by Gerald Hiestand and Joel Lawrence

Power and the Pulpit

Power and the Pulpit (The Center for Pastor Theologians Series) edited by Gerald Hiestand and Joel Lawrence. Cascade Books (ISBN: 9798385247554) 2025.

Summary: A theology of preaching grounded in God’s word and Christ-centered, Spirit-empowered preaching with humility.

Over the years, I have participated in the ministry of the word as part of a preaching team in our congregation. And, for a space, I coordinated expository preaching training for college ministry staff. Both of these occasioned thought and discussion about the theology of preaching. What is our vision of what it is we do when we set forth God’s Word with God’s people? Furthermore, does it make any difference? Where does the power come from that works transformation both in us as preachers and in our hearers? Do we still believe, as the apostle Paul wrote that “preaching comes, not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power” (1 Corinthians 2:4).

So, it was with great interest that I welcomed this latest collection of essays from the Center for Pastor Theologians conference in 2023. The focus was on the theology of preaching and addressed the questions mentioned above. The essays are organized under three parts: the centrality, the humility, and the practice of the pulpit.

The Centrality of the Pulpit

Jeremy Treat opens this collection discussing “Why Preaching Still Matters” in a time when this is being jettisoned in some churches. He argues that the simple answer is that God has commanded it and that God works effectually in his people as the word centered on the cross is proclaimed. He addresses concerns particular to this generation. Jason Meyer then focuses on Paul’s theology of preaching. Rather than a rhetorical performance, preaching is to be cruciform, empowered by Christ. In “Bring the Thunder!”

Douglas Sean O’Donnell return to the source of power in preaching: God’s commission, the Spirit’s empowering, prayer, and the power of the cross. Then Philip Ryken focuses in “The Ministry is the Message” on our union with Christ in his suffering and glory. Finally, Nicole Massie Martin discusses how the slain but standing Lamb of Revelation 5 is “The Answer” to all our life questions and, indeed, the center of all things.

The Humility of the Pulpit

Matthew D. Kim returns to the preacher’s identification with Christ’s suffering in “Is Your Preaching Pain-Full?” Are we conscious of our own weakness and dependent through prayer on Scripture and the Holy Spirit? And do we empathize with the sufferings of our people? Kevin Vanhoozer contrasts the bully pulpit and the “kata-pulpit,” that pulpit that is in accord with scripture. He sees preachers as curators of the Word of God. However, recent pastoral abuses have undermined, or as Laurie Norris would say “pasteurized the pastorate.” Instead of combativeness or compromise, she calls pastors to cruciformity. Then to close this section, Stephen Witmer turns to the poetry of George Herbert, the poet-pastor to speak of “Treasures from an Earthen Pot.” Following Herbert, he speaks of embodied, local, and limited preaching.

The Practice of the Pulpit

Ahmi Lee opens this section writing of “The Philanthropic Pulpit,” a meditation on Oration 14 of Gregory of Nazianzus. He emphasizes how the pulpit promotes “true human flourishing as God intended and wills.” Trygve. D. Johnson then considers “The Power and Purpose of the Pulpit.” The essay is a study of P.T. Forsyth. Jaclyn Williams focuses on the embodied, incarnational nature of preaching and the joy of being “used by God to declare eternal truths within temporal space.” Neal D. Presa draws upon Ambrose of Milan to discuss mystagogical preaching–connecting “what occurs in the context of the gathered worshiping community to God’s work in the world….” Finally, Eric Redmond discusses the importance of specific application.

Conclusion

I appreciated the call to a scripture-centered, cross-focused, and Spirit empowered preaching that ran through these essays. We’ve had enough of human charisma and self-help messages with a veneer of God. What was also delightful was to see how speakers drew not only on scripture but also great preachers through history: Gregory, Ambrose, Herbert, and Forsyth. Finally, these essays focused on the humbling, high-calling of preaching, where under God’s grace, we may, in a way, speak incarnationally. That is, where it is Christ speaking to his people through us.

These are essays to encourage the pastor, laboring week by week and wondering if it matters. And they remind us of being participants in the miracle of God’s word among God’s people.

________________________________

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher. The opinions I have expressed are my own.

Previous reviews of books from The Center for Pastor Theologians Conferences:

Becoming a Pastor Theologian: https://bobonbooks.com/2017/12/21/review-becoming-a-pastor-theologian/

Beauty, Order, and Mystery: https://bobonbooks.com/2019/01/28/review-beauty-order-and-mystery/

Tending Soul, Mind, and Body: https://bobonbooks.com/2020/07/14/review-tending-soul-mind-and-body/

Review: Woven Tales of Greek Mythology

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Cover image of "Woven Tales ofGreek Mythology" by Michael D. Clark, Ed.D

Woven Tales of Greek Mythology

Woven Tales of Greek Mythology (no publisher link available), Michael D. Clark. Covenant Books (ISBN: 9798894854540) 2025.

Summary: A rendering of Greek mythology from creation to the odyssey with parallels to Judeo-Christian texts.

Michael D. Clark, Ed.D has undertaken a fascinating project in this book. He seeks to offer a chronological and continuous rendering of Greek mythology from the creation through Heracles and Jason and the Argonauts up through the events of the Iliad and the Odyssey. The lefthand pages of the book render Greek mythology while the right hand pages draw parallels between the episode and Judeo-Christian scripture, and apocryphal and other ancient texts. The text is enhanced by drawings rendering some of the mythological events, often placed on pages with no biblical parallel. He also includes a very helpful glossary of characters in Greek mythology.

There is quite an extensive scholarship comparing biblical and other ancient near east texts. This is the first instance I’ve come across (though I am by no means a scholar in this field!) of looking at parallels between Judeo-Christian texts and Greek mythology. But given the interaction between Greek philosophy and Christian theology, there might be warrant in this work.

And indeed, Clark explores a number of interesting parallels. For example, he opens with the Greek paradise myth of Pelasgus, comparing it with the Adam story. Likewise, the Deucalion flood myth obviously has parallels with the biblical and extra-biblical flood accounts. Then there is the story of the Cyclops, Polyphemous, blinded in the eye in the middle of his forehead, paralleling the stone striking down Goliath.

Sometimes the parallels underscore the differences. For example, I see the contrast between the extraordinary training in martial arts of Heracles and the more normal youth of Jesus, punctuated with his discussions with religious leaders at age twelve.

There is an extended section paralleling the labors of Heracles with the final challenges Jesus faced with the religious leaders before his crucifixion. But here, I found the parallels often superficial. For example, in the ninth labor, he parallels the golden belt of Hippolyte to the Romain coin used in the discussion of paying tribute. Yes, there were objects of monetary value. Yes, deceitful behavior is part of the story. But I felt this a stretch at best.

Perhaps more far-fetched was the likening of Medusa’s lifeless head, carried in the backpack of Perseus to the carrying of tablets of the law in the ark, and the idea that “Medusa represented the law found in the commandments.” The only parallel I see are containers carrying objects.

I felt part of the challenge was in finding parallels with a narrative of all the Greek myths. Some are of genuine interest like creation, flood, or resurrection stories. Likewise, definite moral parallels also abound. But some parallels are little more than linguistically similar or seem a bit of a reach. Would a more modest goal of, say, ten of the most significant parallels discussed in greater depth be more effective?

In saying this, I want to recognize the author’s effort. However, I felt this could have benefited from review by other scholars of Greek mythology and Judeo-Christian literature. Likewise, a more focused treatment might have enhanced “the weave.”

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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author for review.

The Weekly Wrap: June 21-27

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The Weekly Wrap: June 21-27

Reading the Classics

In recent years, humanities programs in many universities excoriated “the Western Canon,” the classic works that had provided a common vocabulary for generations of educated persons. More recently, there has been a resurgence of the classics among home schoolers, and private schools. Recently, states like Texas have prescribed curricula incorporating a number of classic works. While many of these lean conservative, there are other exponents of reading the classics. Ted Gioia has created a 52-week classics reading program. Classical philosopher Zena Hitz, a tutor at St. John’s College has launched a program called the Catherine Project.

A few of my thoughts about this:

Firstly, I have a broad definition of classics including the ancient Greek and Latin writers, great works of philosophy and theology, and great works of literature spanning the gamut from Homer, to Dante, to Austen, Melville, Steinbeck, and Morrison and many more. Classics are works that have endured and are part of our ongoing civilizational conversation.

Secondly, I won’t say one ought to read the classics. Rather, the question is, how important to you is that civilizational conversation. I’ve come to appreciate reading the stories and ideas that form our cultural fabric.

Thirdly, I recognize these are human works that range from our noblest ideals to baser ones. We do need to read critically. Often that occurs in the conversation.

Fourthly, I also want to read diversely. Given our global village, I don’t just want to understand the western enclave, even though that is where I live. And I wouldn’t want to miss the explorations of human nature in mysteries, and of the future in science fiction.

Finally, I’ve discovered that there were some “great books” I read too soon. More life has brought deeper engagement with many of the ideas and stories of which I was oblivious in high school.

I say read these works not because you must but because you may. So many free or inexpensive editions exist. As for lists, I won’t prescribe any–I’m too profligate a reader for that!

Five Articles Worth Reading

Speaking of lists. A number of book critics were asked about the essential works of American literature in our first 250 years. Publishers Weekly published the results in “15 Essential Works of American Literature.”

“Diversity” is a bad word in some quarters. But in “How Babel Thrives,” David Sugarman reviews a book that studies one of the world’s most diverse communities, Queens, New York. It argues that by allowing diverse communities to live side by side without erasing differences, they’ve managed to forge a robust pluralism.

At one time, figures like Reinhold Niebuhr and Billy Graham appeared on the covers of Time. But no longer, as Ed Simon notes in “Where Have All the Protestants Gone?“

Helen Lewis, in “Paradise Revisited” re-traces Charles Darwin’s journey in the Galapagos. The essay is punctuated with gorgeous photographs and videos. In addition, Lewis gives the lie to Darwin’s brief journey being the time when he figured out natural selection, which came only on subsequent reflection.

Finally, it is actually possible to acquire a library of 20,000 volumes just studying the Greek and Latin classics. You can tour David Butterfield’s library in “The Largest Bookshelf Tour Ever Filmed: Inside a Classicist’s 20,000-Volume Library.”

Quote of the Week

Pearl S. Buck, who was born June 26, 1892, pithily summarizes the case for studying the past:

“If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”

Miscellaneous Musings

I featured Theo of Golden by Allen Levi on my Facebook page. I have never had so many positive reactions to a book, especially from friends I respect for their reading judgment. That only whets my appetite to read it.

I’m starting Jill Lepore’s We The People as my America’s 250th reading. However, I don’t think I’ll finish it by July 4. The book is a history of our Constitution, an imperfect but amazing document, as crucial as ever to our national life.

Daniel Silliman’s Reading Evangelicals is an interesting study of the fiction Christians were reading over about a twenty-five year period from the mid-1980’s to the late 2000’s. I’m interested to see how he thinks those books, only one of which I read, shaped evangelical identity.

Next Week’s Reviews

Monday: Michael D. Clark, Woven Tales of Greek Mythology

Tuesday: Gerald Hiestand & Joel Lawrence, Power and the Pulpit

Wednesday: William Kent Krueger, Desolation Mountain

Thursday: Hannah King Miller, Feasting on Hope

Friday: Daniel Silliman, Reading Evangelicals

So, that’s The Weekly Wrap  for June 21-27.

Find past editions of The Weekly Wrap under The Weekly Wrap heading on this page.

Review: Pyramids

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Cover image of "Pyramids" by Terry Pratchett

Pyramids

Pyramids (Discworld, 7) Terry Pratchett. HarperCollins (ISBN: 9780063393332) 2025, first published 1989.

Summary: Prince Teppic, having completed Assassins training, returns to be Pharoah of Djelibeybi, ordering the building of a huge pyramid.

Rather than cool his heels in Djelibeybi (pronounced like Jelly Baby), Prince Teppic goes to Ankh-Morpork to enroll in assassins training in the Assassins Guild. It’s a seven-year course few survived but if he did, he could bring a lucrative income into an impoverished kingdom that spent all its money on pyramids to house it’s dead kings. It was a practice that had drained the kingdom of money and, as readers will learn, of other things as well. Once it was a great kingdom. But now it is a narrow buffer along a river valley, serving as a buffer between two rival nations.

Just as he survives and passes his final exam, Teppic senses his father, the Pharoah had died. Indeed that is the case. On returning, Teppic suddenly finds himself a Pharoah and a god, responsible for the sunrise each day. New to all this, he is advised by the venerable high priest, Dios. However, he soon discovers that Dios really runs the show, when Dios twists all his novel ideas into the established traditions.

Nowhere is this more true than in the burial of his father. He has to be entombed in a pyramid. Teppic happens to know this is not what his father would have wanted (as the old king’s spirit tries to make known). In frustration, Teppic finally orders them to build the biggest pyramid ever, double the usual size.

Little does he realize the forces he has unleashed. Pyramids are objects of power. The others flared every night. No one has ever tried to build one this big. When Ptaclusp and his sons, the pyramid builders try to do this, they discover that workers and money and materials are the least of their problems as strange forces build up to a cataclysm.

But before that happens, Teppic, Ptraci, the old king’s handmaiden, and a camel with hidden powers, escape. Looking back, they see the kingdom vanish into a mere crack in the ground. Suddenly, nothing stands between the rival kingdoms which prepare to go to war.

Meanwhile, Djelibeybi still exists, just in another dimension. But all kind of craziness has ensued, beyond even Dios’ powers, which in fact are considerable. The dead kings walk the realm, as do the gods whose existence they usually ignored and disbelieved.

Will Teppic act to save his kingdom? Or will he take the opportunity to ride off with the pretty and scantily clad handmaiden into the sunset? I’ll leave it to you to find out.

Once again, this is a Terry Pratchett romp between fantasy and satire, showing religion at its silliest while making us ask, what would happen if the gods really showed up? And all those pyramids? Pratchett leaves us to wonder if the real Pharaohs would equally have hated the idea. And perhaps it all was just a poke at the silliness of “pyramid power”!